The Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has filed criminal charges against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (Kogi Central) over an allegation of an assassination plot.

One of the charges is linked to the allegations Akpoti-Uduaghan made during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on April 3, 2025, wherein she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, of plotting to assassinate her.

Akpabio and Bello may be called as witnesses. In the charge sheet sighted by newsmen in Abuja, the Federal Government, the complainant in the case filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, sued Akpoti-Uduaghan as the sole defendant.

The Federal Government accused the senator of “making imputation knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person,” citing Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990. The offence is punishable under Section 392 of the same law.

The government accused the embattled senator of accusing Akpabio, saying: “It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night to eliminate me.

“Let’s ask the Senate President why, in the first instance, he withdrew my security, if not to make me vulnerable to attacks. He then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi.”

In count two, Akpoti-Uduaghan was accused of “making an imputation knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person, contrary to Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990, and punishable under Section 392 of the same Law.”

She was also accused of having, on or about March 27, 2025, during a two-way telephone conversation with one Sandra C. Duru in Abuja, made the following imputation concerning Senator Akpabio, to wit:

“That girl that was killed, what’s her name, umm Imoren Iniubong, her organs were actually used for the wife, because the wife was really ill… when they killed the girl, and her organs were used for the wife.

“You knew or had reason to believe that such imputation would harm the reputation of Senator Godswill Akpabio,” the Federal Government alleged in the charge filed by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Mohammed Abubakar.